1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image processing method for continuously taking an image of an image pickup object and detecting the range of the image pickup object in an image based on image pickup; an image processing system to which the image processing method is applied; an image pickup device and an image processing device which are used in the image processing system; and a computer program for realizing the image processing device, and in particular to an image processing method, an image processing system, an image pickup device, an image processing device and a computer program for facilitating a process such as detection of a range.
2. Description of the Related Art
Suggested as a device to support driving of a vehicle such as a car is an image processing device for taking an image of the face of the driver with an in-vehicle camera, which is arranged at a location capable of taking an image of the face of the driver, and performing image processing to detect the facial contour of the driver, the location of the eyes and nose and also the status of the face based thereon from an obtained image (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-234367, for example). Moreover, constructed using such a device is a system for detecting the status of the driver and providing driving support such as warning to inattentive driving.
However, when the face of the driver is away from the in-vehicle camera, for example, there is a problem that the part of the face in the taken image becomes small and image processing such as detection of the contour and the location of the eyes and nose cannot be performed sufficiently.